Marriage & Masti

I have been loving Nisha Sharma‘s If Shakespeare Was an Auntie series and was so excited to read the final installment, Marriage & Masti. This Twelfth Night retelling is about Deepak and Veera, two career-focused friends who fell out of touch when he got engaged to another woman… then accidentally got married after that engagement abruptly ended. But maybe being (fake) married will help their respective careers? And who knows, maybe these (briefly distant) best friends have more chemistry than they’ve ever acknowledged…

This is the couple I’ve been dying to read, especially after the cliffhanger at the end of the previous book, Tastes Like Shakkar. Something about Deepak and Veera told me they’d be an incredible couple to read about, and they did not disappoint!

Tropes & Narrative Devices:

• Friends to lovers
• Fake marriage
• Marriage of convenience
• Only one bed
• Twelfth Night retelling
• Interstitial content (article excerpts; text exchanges; etc.)
• Third-person narration

What I Liked:

• Deepak and Veera! I just love these characters so much. Getting to know them in the previous books, I already had an idea of who they were and had high expectations for their relationship arc. Veera, in particular, surprised me a bit here. She’s not quite as shy as I’d previously pictured her; she has grit and acerbic humor and is a “brat” according to Deepak. For his part, Deepak seems so cool and collected on the surface, but there’s more to him, and I love how soft he is for Veera. Their friends-to-lovers arc is so cute, especially against the backdrop of being fake married.
• Indian and Hindu wedding and marriage traditions. I’m neither Indian nor Hindu, but I loved learning about the culture here, particularly about weddings and traditions surrounding marriage. There are so many ceremonies and customs, so much jewelry, so much family involvement. I enjoyed getting to know more about the culture and seeing how involved Deepak and Veera are with their community.
• Navigating complicated friendships and family relationships. In addition to the romantic partnership at the center of this, there are also some complex tensions with friends and family. Veera has a toxic relationship with her awful father. Her twin sister, Sana, is an important relationship that goes through some tough spots here. And Veera’s friendship with Kareena and Bobbi has also become fraught in the past year. It’s a lot to navigate, and I liked seeing how things work out.
• Seeing the three couples all together. I’ve loved these books and these characters. It’s a joy to see them all interacting with each other now that they’re all coupled up!
• Challenging the patriarchy. Veera never backs down from calling out sexist people and customs in her culture, and I like how she and the other characters navigate those in ways that feel more modern. Maybe her mom’s generation isn’t there yet, but Veera and her friends are able to blend feminism with their culture. This includes both within their marriages and in the workforce. These women are leaders and deserve so much more respect.
• Those interstitials! Throughout the series, it’s been a riot to read the intermittent articles from W. S. Gupta, text exchanges between the various characters, and more. They offer fun insights into what’s happening on a larger scale and in the background. They also give the impression that their lives are so much fuller and richer than any concise novel could show. It makes the world feel that much more vibrant and real.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• Nothing, this was great!

Final Thoughts

Marriage & Masti is a wonderful way to end this trilogy. I loved Deepak and Veera, their friendship, and the chemistry that sizzles and helps make their fake marriage real. They have full lives, with family and friends, their careers, and all the little quirks that make them unique. This was a joy to read, and I’ll miss these characters now that the series is done.

Special thanks to Avon and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Marriage & Masti here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Marriage & Masti by Author
Series	If Shakespeare Was an Auntie (#3)
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance
Setting	New Jersey; New York; India
Number of Pages	384
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	August 27, 2024
Publisher	Avon

Official Summary

The third and final installment in Nisha Sharma’s beloved Shakespeare-inspired rom-com trilogy—an ode to Twelfth Night—is the perfect friends to lovers romp featuring an accidental wedding, meddling families, and plenty of sizzling chemistry.

Veera Mathur has been through a lot in the past year. Both of her friends found soul mates, the man she fell in love with got engaged to another woman, and her father fired her before selling the family company. When her twin sister, Sana, tells her there is no way of getting her old life back, Veera feels lost at sea: a single, unemployed mess with a bad tattoo and tons of talent, but nowhere to go.

Deepak Datta hasn’t had the best luck either. To secure enough board votes for the CEO position at his family’s company, Illyria Media, he’s ready to marry board member and famous beauty influencer, Olivia Gupta. That is until he wakes up to a get ready with me video announcing their separation. Despite his immediate relief, Deepak needs to do something fast to repair his image.

After a series of convenient mishaps bring them together again—including a literal shipwreck, way too many drinks, and a sunset elopement on the beach—Deepak and Veera realize their accidental wedding might be the solution to their career aspirations. Together, they plot against the very company that ruined their lives in the first place.

As they try to convince the world their friendship was a ruse for romance they’ve felt all along, the line between fake and real begins to blur. Now Veera and Deepak must ask themselves the terrifying question that has haunted them since the first time they met: will love ruin everything?

With her signature humor and heartfelt storytelling, Nisha Sharma writes a messy, spicy romance about identity, family honor, and love. In Marriage & Masti, readers are sure to love the highly anticipated finale of this beloved trilogy.